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If you have an existing business or are opening a business, you may be asking yourself whether or not you should start a blog. Blogging has taken the world by storm. Many of us have read blogs, posted on blogs and even started blogs.

You will find many people that say: YES, you must start a blog. You will find just as many people that say: NO, skip the blog. We will take the load less traveled and say the answer is a giant MAYBE.

1) Reasons to Blog

A blog is a great way to communicate directly with your audience. It personalizes a business and can create consumer confidence and loyalty. If you provide valuable information on the blog your efforts will generally be rewarded.

Having a blog can give you an additional revenue stream if you add advertisements to it. Of course you will want the ads to be relevant so your readers are not turned off.

The biggest reason to have a blog is it is an effective way to communicate to your target audience and hear from them. You can learn about your company’s strengths and weaknesses. If you address them both openly and honestly you can build consumer confidence and loyalty.

A blog can be a powerful communication tool if used properly.

2) Reasons Not to blog

If you are not prepared to devote a few hours per week to blogging, do not do it. A blog needs to get updated at least every 1 to 2 days to be effective and have value. Consumers will be unimpressed with a blog that is infrequently updated and you can damage your reputation with a poorly done blog. Make sure you are ready for committing to a blog.

If you are not a strong communicator, you may want to stay away from a blog. You need to consider the quality and nature of your blog posts and your reactions to other people who post on your blog.

3) Things to Keep in Mind when Blogging

In the end you need to decide whether or not you want to start a blog for your business. If you do start one here are some things to keep in mind:

Do not take it personally. If people have nasty comments or disagree with you, never take it personally. Respond in a professional way. If they post anything inappropriate on the blog you have the power to remove it.
Allow people to post negative comments and respond to them. A well-written response to a complaint about your business will have more value than 50 compliments about your business.
Make sure there are SPAM guards on your blog to prevent the porn sites, gambling sites and other SPAM sites from posting links from your blog.
Require people to register to post on your blog. This gives you contact information and will have some of the anonymous “flamers” (people who post nasty, inflammatory comments) from using your blog.
Give the blog time to get traction. You will not have an instant following, it takes time. Make sure people know about your blog and invite them to read it.

Besides online gaming, pornography and gambling, running a personal or professional blog is one of the most popular forms of entertainment on the Internet today. While businesses are all about brand awareness and presence, blogging has become a platform for the “every man and woman” to post ongoing commentary and news about what interests them. This medium and its cousin vlogging (video blogging) has made everyone a star. No longer do you have to wait for your 15 minutes of traditional fame – you can now be a star and gain a following in the virtual arena and earn extra money while doing it.

So, how do you start your own blog and earn cash from it?

It’s easier than you think. Using free blog platforms like Blogger, Live Journal, WordPress.com and the like, you can set up shop, get a kick ass theme that will be your portal to the world, and in only an hour or so, be live and online. You can also run standalone blog platforms like WordPress or Joomla if you want to put together a professional blog. Each of these platforms is designed for ease of use, to allow the newbie entrance into the blogging arena.

Contextual Advertisers Love Blogs & Pay Money For Your Blog Real Estate

Just like people will pay you to put their advertisements in your store window, corporations like Google and Yahoo pay you to put signage into your virtual real estate a.k.a. your blog. Just add some easy code provided by the two corporations to your blog, and they will automatically add what is called contextual advertising through Google or Yahoo. Contextual advertising is ads that are placed that are relevant to your blog. If your blog is about dogs, all your advertising will “be in context or contextual”, because it will all be for dog stuff. While you continue to express your ideas and opinions people will click on the advertising, and you will get paid a few cents up to a couple dollars per click.

Blog is Short for “Weblog”.

Blogs started as more of a personal journal online where people could record their opinions, feelings and thoughts via the written word. As they “blogged”, they would gain and following and through organizations like Google AdSense and Yahoo Publisher, they could also earn a bit of cash. This rapidly turned into a programmers creating and building a professional blog platform, and today anyone with a yen to be a commentator can take to the virtual Internet and start writing about their views, opinions, hopes and dreams. You have but to look at the political arena to see this evolution with online organizations like The Huffington Post and Politico to name a few.

Blogs Come in all Shapes and Sizes

If writing isn’t your bag, you can also set up a photoblog to show off your photography skills, the vlog as we mentioned earlier and podcasts which are audio blogs. Blogs can be personal where you make one only for your family and friends, or it can be for a professional blog for business purposes where you talk about things that interest you and a lot of other people. Examples of blogs can be anything from comic books to celebrity gossip. If it interest you, and you think it might interest a bunch of other people, blogging about it will get you a following, which can turn rapidly into a thriving community of like-minded individuals with opinions, news and reviews.

Blogs are Fun To Setup and Run

No matter what the purpose is for your blog, it will still be fun to set up and run. Most people start blogging, because they like a particular topic and would like to find friends. If you have a passion for it, there is no end to where blogging can take you. Learning the technology and advancements in blogging is as easy as visiting a blog that is centered around the blogging platforms. In today’s world, whether you are blogging personally or putting together a professional blog, it will be easy, straightforward and quick to set up.